


Mass Effect Drabbles

by MsLanna



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Drabbles, Gen, crew fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2018-08-19 14:15:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8211464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsLanna/pseuds/MsLanna
Summary: Drabble dump. No overarcing story.Will keep the appearing characters behind the titles for easier browsing for your faves.





	1. we are one (Shepard, Garrus, Grunt, Joker, Miranda, Mordin, Zaeed)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabbles inspired by ['We Are One' by Project Pitchfork](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l5ymw8FqQo)
> 
> PoVs of: Shepard, Garrus, Grunt, Joker, Miranda, Mordin, Zaeed,

it was much easier to hide

Garrus couldn't believe Shepard was back. She went through those mercs like the Collector beam through the Normandy's shields. Ruthless, rule-less.

Without her, the red tape had caught up fast. Garrus hadn't had the patience to deal with it. So he had gone undercover. Not to hide. To show them all what could be done. But what could be done? The supply of mercenaries never abated. He hadn't made a dent in Omega's structure. Just kept the forces differently occupied.

Now Shepard was back. And Garrus was ready to deal with rules again. No more hiding. Not even from himself.

  


  


a senseless fight for nothing

Not true. NOT true. Good fight, sensible, necessary. Genophage needed updating. Containment of Krogan threat. Grunt not a changing factor. Actually, proof. Aggressive, volatile. Needs guidance.

Shepard did well. Became Battlemaster even. Good fight. Tuchanka not a friendly place to live in. Does not need Krogan for that, devastated planet. Still, exciting insights on Krogan adolescence. Killing a Thresher Maw. Unexpected. As was betrayal by Maelon.

Put that behind me. Misguided youngster. Desire to help dangerous. Misplaced. Better here. Close group. Missed being part of a team. Honourable goal. And then. Will see. If there is future. Maybe somewhere warm.

  


  


I look into your eyes

And everything else was suddenly unimportant. Sloppy. Bad for the survival odds and still true. Standing there, her arms crossed and actually listening to one story after another. Zaeed did not think about it often. Thinking about it, her hurt. But she made him feel to be more than violence for hire.

He could look into those dark eyes and see his whole future. Regrettably short, considering the upcoming suicide mission. But it would be for the better. That woman would be the end of him either way.

Shepard smiled. She did that. And he found himself smiling back. Sloppy.

  


  


you make me realize

She didn't want to die. It hit her just like that and she lost track of the story Zaeed was telling. Yes, she had been dead and dying again had not seemed that much of a thing. It was a good cause. A worthy death.

But standing here, now, Shepard knew she wanted to live. There were things she wanted to do, people -

She realised she had been staring at Zaeed. He returned the gaze warily.

“thank you.” Shepard smiled. She could have kissed him. Probably without few repercussions if she was fast enough. Or, maybe – she kept smiling.

  


  


and everything falls apart

He would not let it happen again. It still haunted him. Red flashing through his nightmares, explosions shaking him from years back. The blast door cutting off that view, that horrible view he would not be free off.

His fault. He should have evacuated with the rest. Should have. Hadn't. Had killed his commanding officer instead. Had killed his friend.

But not this time. The eerie red light was not coming from the burning ship. The Normandy would not burn. Not this time. Joker tilted her sideways, narrowly passing through a gap in the debris.

This time they would live.

  


  


a numb feeling in my heart

She was going to get them all killed. All of them. Bloody well each one. This was a suicide mission. She knew that. Still she had gathered friends around her. Fucking friends! What kind of person did that?

Well, she obviously. Shepard looked down at the faces of her crew. Expectant gazes resting on her, waiting for the last rallying cry.

They were not bound. Oaths, honour, money – it meant nothing and they knew. And yet, not one of them had turned back. Not one of them would. Not even under orders. She smiled over the cold in her chest.

  


  


in search of our own life

She would run no more.

Miranda looked at the wavering image of the Illusive Man. Cerberus had helped her, saved her from her father. And she had repaid them time and time again. Where had it left her? She didn't know.

Shepard had been just a project, but had changed her. The Normandy was Shepard's own tightly-knit family. A family that included her. For what price? Miranda didn't know. She didn't see one. She could walk any moment.

When the Illusive man ordered her to stop Shepard Miranda did know. She could keep paying, or walk out unhindered. She walked.

  


  


we are one

The silence in the cargo hold was tired and full of fragments. Shepard looked at the tired and drawn faces around her. Dirt. Blood. Grime.

Empty eyes looked back blankly. It had not yet sunk in. They were alive. The Collector base was destroyed. But they lived.

All of them.

Shepard forced a smile. She had been dead. They had all been dead men walking. But look at them now. Bent maybe, weighed down, subdued. But alive. They had stood together, this band of misfits, outcasts, loners. And together they had prevailed. As one.

Shepard smiled. She had her family.

  



	2. Poem Fragment on Kalros, Mother of Thresher Maws

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A perfect 100 drablle. Challenge was actually psoted in the Dragon Age facebook group but I can't read.   
> Theme: Beneath the City

Poem Fragment on Kalros, Mother of Thresher Maws  
  
Beneath the city sleeps a beast   
with one eye open   
in ruins  
under the crumpling, crumbled walls  
the mother of all  
she waits  
  
She was the first, she is the source  
of all we know  
today  
who terrorise the all of space  
too hostile for life  
survive  
  
Kalros remains in this cold waste  
the toxic remains  
of our wars  
and radiation warms her bones  
roving underground  
without sound  
  
Call her here the mother of all  
slam the hammers down.  
The sound  
will call the mightiest Thresher Maw  
our death and our  
salvation


	3. Baubles (Shepard/Kasumi)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard&Kasumi ficlet inspired by the Sunday Sprints on fb  
> Prompt: "I didn't mean to actually set the place on fire! Honest!"

"I didn't mean to actually set the place on fire! Honest!"

“So you meant to set it on fire metaphorically?” Shepard asked. “I don’t see how that is any better.”

“In a metaphorical fire,” Kasumi grinned mischievously, “you are free to appropriate whatever you want. Now this.” She sighed and looked at the burning place below. “His vault did have a few items easily acquired, transported and liquidated.”

Shepard grunted non.-committal.”

“Think of it,” Kasumi went on. “Selling she fragments of the statue you shot each as the last remains of the work. You could float a cruiser on the credits that brings.”

“You think?” Shepard peered down. “There were some pocket-sized items.”

“Now you’re talking.” 

“Am not.” Shepard looked at the master thief. “The place is still on fire. And Hocks’s people-”

“Like to be alive,” Kasumi finished the sentence. “They will have evacuated. They could be convinced to stay evacuated.”

“The vault is heavily shielded,” Shepard admitted. “It’s unlikely the fire got all of it, if it even got all the way down there. I mean, we did leave a nice breach.”

“We will see.” Kasumi grinned, knowing she had won.

“Alright, you got me.” Shepard admitted. “So what to do until the fire dies down?”

“I can think of several things. But I think working on your dancing skills takes priority.” Kasumi winked. 

“Do you now.”

“Oh come on. It will be fun.” Kasumi rose, dragging a reluctant Shepard into an upright position. “You will thank me when one day you are forced into an impromptu tango. Trust me.”

Shepard considered this highly unlikely. But since they were standing in position already and Kasumi had turned on some music – there were worse fates.


	4. A Dim Red Glow in the Dark (Garrus)

It was difficult to fall asleep at first. There was nothing but their slowing breaths and that dim glow, the only light in the cabin. But Garrus got used to it, loved it now. It was shining in their darkest hours, lighting up the darkest places. It was a sliver of hope for the future shining through the oceans of blood they had to shed.

"I can get them removed." Shepard touched the scars self-consciously.

"Are you mad? You love scars." Garrus replied.

"But do you?"

Garrus ran a finger over the cracking cheek, dimming the glow momentarily. "Only yours."


	5. Curses (Shepard, Garrus)

"...incorrigible, soggy lump of useless! Pathetically clueless, overstrained, good-for-nothing piece of obstruction! Horrible-"

"Would you just calm down?", Garrus asked soothingly.

"Calm down?" Shepard turned, holding up a lump of pulp. "This is the worst, runny-"

"It's medi-gel, Shepard," Garrus interrupted. "Omni-gel was decommissioned while you were dead. We don't open locks like that anymore."

Shepard looked at the smeared door. "So what do we do?"

Garrus opened a panel that had covered a board with highlighted circuits. Shepard was sorely tempted to stick her hand to it and just hope medi-gel had enough in common with omni-gel after all.


	6. Sleep (Shepard)

Shepard had forgotten she had been sitting there, staring at her bed, datapad in her hand. She longed to just go to sleep, curl up under the blankets, warm and safe.

But that safe place didn't exist any longer. Whenever she closed her eyes, the dream closed in. Black against grey it branched out gnarly hands to drag her into the forest of whispers.

She had tried everything, running faster, not running at all, waking up and waking up again – nothing helped. She was caught with the child in a dreary place of shadows until everything went up in flames.


	7. Counterpoles (Shepard)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> prompted by the MEFF fb group: Balance

Shepard looked at herself hanging from the Normandy's ramp. You wanted things to make sense, for everything to have a reason, you wanted logic and predictability – and then things like this happened. Just bad people doing bad things making others suffer. No reason.

Her other eyes stared back – the her with no baggage, without the weakness of caring. It hurt.

From the corner of her eyes Shepard saw her friends trying to reach her while Brooks vanished into the shadows. Taking Javik's hand she looked at herself.

Everybody deserved a second chance. Maybe it was not to late for her.


	8. Rejection (Shepard)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> perfect drabble prompted by the MEFF group on facebook

_But you're my friend!_ Shepard hadn't time to say it. Ashley just turned and left.

But we are friends. When had that changed? Times like this the two year gap hit Shepard hard. Everybody had mourned and moved on. Everybody was two years ahead of her in emotional recovery.

She stood staring at the spot her friend had vanished with that sinking feeling again. It sank right through into cold resignation and anger. What had she done to deserve no respite, or to catch up? She hadn't asked Cerberus to bring her back. Days like these, she wished they hadn't.


	9. Girls Just Wanna Have Guns (Shepard, Anderson)

"You can't take it with you," Anderson crossed his arms before him.

"What?" Shepard played innocent.

"It is a ball."

"And I am wearing a dress."

"And a very illegal, highly modded Black Widow sniper rifle."

"She's a beauty, isn't she." Shepard patted the barrel protruding over her shoulder.

"You can't take it along."

"Well, alright." Shepard pouted. "If you don't wan the two of us along… I'll ask Garrus. Garrus always finds places I can take Belle with me."

"It's name is Belle?" Anderson knew it was the wrong thing to say but it was too late.

" _Her_ name," Shepard corrected. "Every great gun needs a name. Look at Jessie. Though, speaking of great…"

"That's not the point," Anderson interrupted. "The gun stays. You come."

"But-"

"No buts. And no puns!" Anderson added quickly. "You are the first human Spectre and just once in a while you _will_ act your position."

It included a liberal amount of grumbling and swearing but in the end Lysandra Shepard was presentable to the world.

"Don't think I don't know you have knife on your thigh and a pistol in your bra," Anderson murmured as they left for the ball. It would have been so much easier to get her a real date to accompany her but knowing her, she'd bring Garrus and his biggest gun as well. The military didn't pay him enough for this. "Just do not use them."

"Sure, dad."

Anderson had to smile. Shepard probably thought he hadn't heard that. But despite his years of service, his ears were still good. Maybe Military Command knew they didn't have to pay him more to do this.

  



	10. Resolution (Shepard)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> perfect drabble

It wasn't about doing what was right. In this war that threatened to wipe out all life, all Shepard wanted to do was save her remaining friends. And if she had to betray a thousand futures, destroy a million home-worlds, she'd do it.

There weren't enough friends left. So if Bau, if Mordin made it to the next day no cost was too high.

Shepard ran her arm over her eyes, reached for the glass. They might hate her for her decisions, detest and avoid her for forever. It didn't matter. They were still alive. That was _all_ that mattered.


End file.
